About Me

Three years ago, I felt the air deflate from my lungs when a caring orthopedic doctor suggested that I may have a form of inflammatory arthritis. Passionate about exercising and enjoying an active lifestyle, I was devastated. While the past few years haven’t been easy, I’ve learned to savor each day as a gift. When I experience a day of intense joint swelling and stiffness, I try to remind myself that it might be followed by several relatively pain free days. I’ve also learned to conduct research about my disease and be open to trying the many available treatment options for this medical condition. Good nutrition, stretching exercises, and certain medications have become my best allies in my battle with inflammatory arthritis. On this blog, I want to provide reassurance to others who have been diagnosed with this condition that life goes on. And, it can be surprisingly wonderful. Enjoy!

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If your son or daughter is addicted to heroin, then you need to act quickly. The longer they go without treatment, the more damage can occur. You might wake up in the middle of the night to find that they have been arrested, or worse, that they have overdosed and are in the hospital in terrible shape. So, you might do something. The best thing to do is find a treatment center that deals specifically with heroin. You need to be clear on what type of addiction you are looking for assistance with. Heroin is not treated with the same modality that cocaine, pills, or alcohol is. There is a very specific treatment plan that needs to be followed. So, once you understand that, you also need to find out if the treatment center offers the following things.

In-Patient Medically Supervised Detox

Kicking heroin is a dangerous process. This is why you want an inpatient facility. Your son or daughter will go through serious withdrawal symptoms which might necessitate medical help. So, an outpatient center is not adequate. Those are better for the recovering addict who needs to go back for therapy or medication such as suboxone. Your son or daughter might suffer through intense pain which would require sedatives, as well as intravenous administration or liquids in some severe cases. So, you want to make sure that there is some sort of medical supervision on hand.

Psychological Counseling

Just kicking the physical addiction is not enough. There is a tremendous mental addiction when it comes to hard drugs. The psychological cravings can be so intense that they can drive a person back to use. Therefore it is important that there is some sort of psychological counseling. This can help your son or daughter understand why they seek out drugs, and can help them combat some of the triggers that might cause them to fall back into a relapse. There are different forms of counseling. Some of them are group oriented , while others are one on one. They can all be beneficial, so it is a good idea to not rule out a place just because it only uses group therapy and doesn't offer one on one. Often times addicts feel safer discussing their issues with other addicts present, not just a counselor.

Job or GED Assistance

It's very likely that your son or daughter needs help reentering the workplace, or even getting a high school equivalency diploma. Part of getting their life back together involves obtaining the proper guidance to assist them with getting a job or finding classes to take their GED in. Therefore it is important that the center have some sort of guidance aspect. They might work in conjunction with other organizations that help recovering addicts find jobs, or there might be staff on hand to help them. Either way, it's something that needs to be avaliable to your child